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Emily Bathurst; or, at Home and Abroad

Synopsis

Synopsis

In Bathurst, plot is substituted in favour of didactic arguments presented using the three different genres of Christian conduct manual, evangelical propaganda and travel writing which are interspersed across the novel. The story takes place in England and begins by introducing the eponymous young woman Emily and her uncle Mr Munro, whose authoritative male voice guides Emily’s spiritual development and relates information about missionary activities in New Zealand. Although the author’s pseudonym intentionally reveals her gender, she may have felt “that advice from a woman author would not be considered authoritative for moral instruction of her own sex” as in the novel all her arguments are presented by men, largely for the instruction of women such as Emily, her mother or Lady Mary (Harris 230). Chapters I, IX and XI of Bathurst resemble a fictionalised version of a conduct manual. The author’s preoccupation with religion above all else dictates the nature of her instruction. Mr Munro’s advice, although concerned with education, feminine modesty and filial obedience (as would be typical of the conduct genre), is interested in each virtue only to the extent that it helps to “prepare for that eternal world where our hearts should be” (The Wife 8). For this reason he criticises Emily’s secular studies and engages to expand her knowledge of missionary work with a comparison between New Zealand in 1814, as missionaries arrived, and 1833. These descriptions of New Zealand, contained within chapters II, III, VIII and X, emulate a travel document in their detailed explanation of Māori customs, reverence for the beauty of the landscape, description of significant events in the colonisation of the country and accounts of the often tragic adventures of Māori chiefs, ship captains and early settlers. Although appealing in their own right, the primary purpose of these sections is to support the author’s religious arguments. The remaining chapters of the novel, IV, V, VI and VII, operate as Evangelical propaganda. These introduce debates surrounding the CMS’ mission to convert the heathen through secondary characters so that Mr Munro and Emily’s godfather, Archdeacon Somerton, can refute the criticism and promote the work of the CMS.